Results tagged “Adam Smith” from Marilyn Sewell

Yesterday I took part in a panel discussion at Lewis and Clark College's current conference on "Reimagining the Good Life."  Our panel's subject was the relationship between economics and religion, in attaining "the good life."  I opened with the following three-minute statement, which I'm sharing with readers as my "Reflection" for this week:

I remember the first time I began to understand that our economic system could be questioned, that it was not just a given, but actually the product of human choice.  I was a social work student, back in the '70's, and I heard a speech by David Gil, a professor from Brandeis.  "Who owns the air?" he said.  "Who owns the water?"

A word about the ancient god of the free market system, Adam Smith.  When Smith is quoted regarding the "invisible hand" of the market, what is conveniently forgotten is his assumptions about the conditions necessary to make free markets work.  Smith assumed that we would operate on a small scale and so would know the character of the people we trade with.  He assumed that our financial dealings would exist in the context of our values.  Instead, Smith's writing is used to justify the mad pursuit of shareholder profit, which is held to be holy and untouchable.

If we consider ourselves religious or spiritual, we know that we must see and enter the suffering of the world, else our own spiritual wounds will never heal.  The question comes, though, how do we enter the suffering of the world?  Churches are most comfortable with deeds of charity alone.  I recall the words of Archbishop Camara of Brazil: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint; when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."  There's nothing wrong with giving soup to hungry people--but the more difficult and dangerous way is systemic change, to get at the system that causes the suffering.

Wendell Berry looked at the derivation of "economics" in his book Home Economics.  Originally the word meant "activity involved in caring for the home."  Now it is a sophisticated discipline, supposedly a science, grounded in mathematical equations instead of human values.

Do I, a minister, know enough to speak about economics?  Am I a citizen?  We cannot leave this crucial area to the "experts," who have overlooked the poor among us, saying "that's just the price we have to pay for prosperity"; who have called the bleeding of the earth an "externality"; who have been enamored of formulas in books and have not been concerned that children are hungry.  No, we can't leave economics to the experts, because economics is all about how we divvy up resources and therefore it is fundamentally a moral issue.

We wonder that we can do in the face of forces which seem immovable.  Well, these forces are in fact subject to change.  Human beings have made choices, and different choices can be made.  We can say no, and no, and no.  We can say no, until they hear us.  And we can say yes, here is a new way.  It's time now.  Let's move there together.

 Share this

Students in the current graduating class of M.B.A. students at Harvard are being asked to sign on the dotted line--no, not for a fancy job that will bring in six figures--they are being asked by their peers to sign the "M.B.A. Oath," a pledge to act responsibly and ethically and to refrain from advancing their "own narrow ambitions" at the expense of other people.  Seems simple enough.  Doctors have to sign a pledge saying that they will try to heal people.  Judges have to pledge that they will uphold the Constitution.  Ministers promise a variety of things, often including the exceedingly difficult one, "to speak the truth to power."  But only a scant 20% of the Harvard M.B.A. class was willing to sign. 

The headline in the NY Times (5/30, p. B4) reads "A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality," and the writer seems to be impressed that all these young business people are signing such a vow.  I'm wondering about the other 80%--are they not planning to act responsibly and ethically?  Are they planning to advance their own narrow ambitions, in spite of who gets hurt?  If so, could we have the names of the non-signers?  They'll probably be investing our retirement funds in a few short years.

When I read this article, I was reminded of a graduating law student, a member of First Unitarian Church, who told me some years ago that he had asked his fellow graduates to sign a pledge reading: "Before I take any job, I will ask myself whether or not this job contributes to the greater good."  Note that the pledge doesn't ask anyone to refuse a job that doesn't contribute to the good, but merely to "ask myself" the question.  As I remember, seven law students agreed to sign.

So what's going on?  Change is rearing its difficult head, and it's going to take a while before ethical behavior becomes the norm in business, if it ever does.  But this is a new leaning in the right direction.  The norm can shift.  People will become ashamed of shoddy behavior  when enough of their compatriots clearly disapprove of such behavior instead of admiring it, if it makes a buck.

This is not to say that all business people are unethical and money-hungry--not at all.  And when I see a business like Neil Kelly or New Seasons and watch the values they operate by, I take hope for the future.  It's just that they seem to be the exception and not the rule. 

Bruce Kogut, director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Company Center for Leadership and Ethics, says that students are beginning to think about how they earn their income, not just how much.  (What a concept!)  He says,"They see inequities and the role of business of address them."  I ask you, how could business students at a school this sophisticated not understand the role of business in addressing economic inequities?  Adam Smith understood something about the relationship of capitalism to community and the larger good--don't Harvard M.B.A. students read Smith, like in the first semester of B school?

The fact is, though, it doesn't matter what you read, or what your teachers say, if the cultural ethic is all about greed.  People will do what other people do, almost always.  Those who don't, surprise us with their integrity. Change will come with leadership and education around these issues, and when the norm becomes service, these grads will want to serve.

Sleazy business practice will then become like smoking--you'll have to leave the group and sneak around out back to do it.  I can hardly wait.

 Share this